Harder pushing for set timeline on pot bill

The government’s representative in the Senate is pushing for a set timeline in the Senate for debating and voting on Bill C-45, raising concerns about partisan heel-dragging.

Sen. Peter Harder also threatened that if an agreement on the bill’s timely passage isn’t reached soon, he would move time allocation.

He appealed to senators to make a “decision on second reading of Bill C-45 on or before Thursday, March 1” so it gets sent to committee study ahead of a two-week break period. The committee(s) would then have to report back to the Senate by Thursday, April 19.

“I have some concern that partisan politics could affect our proceedings,” he said Tuesday.

Harder said he was concerned that “the leader of the national Conservative caucus has publicly indicated a desire to delay Senate proceedings” on the bill.

“My fear, quite frankly, is that March 1 would come, and we may see the sort of procedural obstruction we have seen from some senators this Parliament on multiple items of government and non-government business,” he said.

Last week, Conservative Sen. leader Larry Smith said during debate on C-45 that Conservative senators “will not proceed in an obstructionist manner” on the bill.

“Conservative senators will not proceed in an obstructionist manner, as some in the media and elsewhere have seemed to suggest,” Smith said in the Senate on February 6.

“I promise you, however, that we will give a voice to those in the Canadian public who have significant valid concerns about the policy choice your government is making.”

The Liberal government has said that it wants to legalize recreational use of cannabis by July this year, although ministers said last week that there would still be a delay once the bill is actually passed.

Harder echoed that today, saying “the actual lifting of the prohibition on cannabis” would follow an eight to 12 week coming into force period after receiving royal assent.

Correction: an earlier version of this story stated that Sen. Harder moved a motion to set a timeline for Senate study of the bill. Harder in fact moved a motion to send the bill to several different committees. He rather met with Senate leadership to discuss a vote on or before March 1 on second reading.